Word: cosmically
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Sudoku box are dry, curt, numbing; they live only in their own, square, self-contained universe; they refer to nothing but themselves. Numbers lack the allusiveness of words, their reverberations, their playfulness - how they rub up against one another and transform themselves. Add an S to comic and get cosmic; add one to laughter and get slaughter. You don't get this alchemy with numbers...
Having a Harvard education means having a reputation to uphold in the Real World, one different people interpret in different, sometimes unhelpful ways. And that’s it. For all the cosmic significance Harvard’s Commencement speakers will try to attach to our diplomas, the real lesson of graduation is a lesson in humility. Getting into Harvard meant we were the best. Getting out means it’s time to prove...
...fallacies with their mothers. They often get A’s too, but as Mr. Carswell points out, this takes too long. There are other ways.His third suggestion, the Overpowering Assumption, I think is best. But not for the reasons he suggests—that the assumption is so cosmic that it might be accepted. It is rarely “accepted;” we aren’t here to accept or reject—we’re here to be amused. The more dazzling, personal, unorthodox, paradoxic your assumptions (paradoxes are not equivocations), the more interesting...
...rather than a complete irrelevance. The artful equivocation must imply the writer knows the right answer, but it must never be definite enough to eliminate any possibilities.There is a third method of dealing with examination questions—that is by the use of overpowering assumption, an assumption so cosmic that it is sometimes accepted. For example, we wrote that it was pretty obvious that the vague generality was the key device in any discussion of examination writing. Why is it obvious? As a matter of fact, it wasn’t obvious at all, but just an arbitrary point...
...Well, it takes about 10 minutes for me to grow a beard. It's not like a big effort. It's something to do. I don't get too cosmic about it. I like the fact that it's going grey. It's interesting to watch...